All posts tagged Oak Park Brew Review

The event was outside in downtown Oak Park and it was beautiful outside. About 50 breweries showed up and brought some great beer. For example:

Goose Island’s Gran Gas made an appearance, although very limited. This beer brewed with spruce tips and lingonberries only stuck around for about an hour (it was great, as can be attested to by all the people who ripped through it). Three Floyds brought their Mentol Brown, which was an English brown brewed in collaboration with Brodie’s in London. Destihl dropped off an incredible apricot sour, that forced me to circle back around in line and get it a second time. Finch’s offered up their Sanchez Stache (barrel aged coffee stout), which was absolutely incredible. It was a wonderful mix of coffee, vanilla, chocolate, and booze.

Also, my daughter was enjoying the outdoors. I got a great picture of her and my wife hanging out in front of a Goose Island truck. I like to think that big smile is because she already has an appreciation for good beer, even if she hasn’t tried any yet.

This week I gave the Barley Island Sheet Metal Blonde a try.

Sight: Pale yellow in color with a wispy white head that quickly disappeared.

Smell: Lots of wheat, which is to be expected. There was a little bit of cloves mixed in there, to let you know it’s a Belgian style wheat

Taste: Light with a malty middle and a bitter spicy finish. The Belgian portion kicks in a little late. The beer supposedly has “herbs and spices”, but I wasn’t getting any over the strong wheat flavor.

My overall grade: C-

Nothing really going on with this beer. It was okay. Would I turn it down if someone handed me one? No. If it was in a cooler with other beer, would I consider the others first? Yes.